Artist: Mystic Circle
Title: Mystic Circle
Genre: Metal
Release Date: 4th February 2022
Label: Atomic Fire Records
Album Review
When the editor in chief asked me if I’d be interested in a review about MYSTIC CIRCLE’s latest release, the name rang a bell, but it took me a while to figure out why on earth the name rang a bell that was associated with DIMMU BORGIR and MOTÖRHEAD but no releases during the last years came to my mind. A few minutes of research later I was stoked to read that the core members of this legendary Metal band from Germany had reunited.
Their upcoming album is self-titled and to make it short, it really deserves the title of ‘Mystic Circle’. The album kicks in with brutal force as ‘Belial Is My Name’ blasts with an insane drum speed from your belltower. The song was recently released as a single, so if you want to check if the two founding members continued where they stopped with ‘Infernal Satanic Verses’, check the video. The song was a perfect choice as an opener and makes you long for more songs from the band’s horror and Satan infested universe, especially as we now live in times of digital recording technology and the songs come in a high production quality.
From insane drum blasts and heavy and more edgy guitar riffing than on the bands last releases, the journey continues to pay the ‘Seven Headed Dragon’ and if you focussed on guitars and drums during the first song, you will now realize that the keyboards are back. This adds a lot of atmosphere to the song that varies in tempo and intensity a bit more than the first and the chorus part almost invites the crowd to shout the ‘Seven Headed Dragon’ during a live show. From dragons the story turns towards demons and ‘Hell Demons Rising’ starts with a nice guitar melody that can be found throughout the song in several variations if you listen close. The melody is pushed in the background a bit, when the growls and drums kick in. The drums prove that it must not always be full speed, but that full speed and alternating intense and heavy drums combined with cymbals are a good option, if vocals and guitars tell most of the songs story and this way the guitar has some space for a short but really great solo.
MYSTIC CIRCLE announced their comeback with ‘Letters From The Devil’ and proved, that there is only one option for them: straightforward with full speed ahead. The intro is quite spheric and melodic until the band proves that they didn’t slow an inch coming to high-speed drumming during their break. Again, great riffing and changes in tempo and melody make the song a very interesting one and the band released a very interesting video to underline the story. The end of the song comes with an interesting and rare occurrence: clear singing underlined with only a keyboard. The song leads over into ‘Darkness In Flames’ with almost no break. An orchestral melody line that is brutally interrupted by drums and growls, again solid guitarwork becomes audible and the orchestral parts occur once in a while. Pay attention to the guitar parts that reflect an interesting almost slow and intense melody and are a sharp contrast to the merciless speeding drums. Just to join them in a speed battle after a while. The line ‘Darkness In Flames’ is perfect for a crowd again and the song will shake the Metal venues on this planet for sure.
‘The Arrival Of Baphomet’ marks the exchange of the orchestral parts for keyboards, but the performance of the lyrics and the chorus parts in combination with the lead guitar motive somehow remind me a bit of a song, you might find on their release ‘Drachenblut’, but with improved English skills coming to vocal performance. The outro is really spheric and is a wonderful ending for a song that is a blast. If you look at all the creatures of the night, a wolf shouldn’t be missing and so he gets his part on ‘Curse Of The Wolf Demon’. The song is the weakest on the album in my books. Compared to the other songs, the drums sometimes are too much in the background and the guitar melody sometimes overlays the lead vocals.
‘Satanic Mistress’ comes with better dosed drums and a more balanced loudness of the guitars and Beelzebub delivers amazing vocals, with shouts, shrieks and growls that prove that a break doesn’t mean that you lose your amazing vocal abilities, especially as the spoken word part that is underlined by the keyboard and a nice guitar riff in the last part of the song is delivered effortlessly, although he previously he gave all to make us feel the real horror with all the growls. The regular album ends highly melodic, while digipack- CD sees you off with a very Punk prone cover of POSSESSED’s ‘Death Metal’ and makes you wish for more of that solo-guitar work and invites you to an air-guitar solo. And ‘Death Metal’ are the last two words on this album, that marks a very good start of this reunited Metal veterans.
Fans gonna love it, haters gonna hate it, so give it a spin and decide which side you are going to join.
Tracklist
01. Belial Is My Name
02. Seven Headed Dragon
03. Hell Demons Rising
04. Letters From The Devil
05. Darkness In Flames
06. The Arrival Of Baphomet
07. Curse Of The Wolf Demon
08. Satanic Mistress
Bonus Track (CD-digipak only!)
09. Death Metal (POSSESSED Cover)
Line-up
Beelzebub - Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards
A. Blackwar - Vocals, Guitars, Drums, Keyboards
Website
www.facebook.com/mysticcircleofficial
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
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